El Cóndor Pasa (pronounced: [el ˈkondoɾ ˈpasa], Spanish for “The Condor Passes”) is a song from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean folk tunes.
It is possibly the best-known Peruvian song worldwide due to a cover version by Simon & Garfunkel in 1970 on their Bridge over Troubled Water album. This cover version is called “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)”. Paul Simon heard a version called “Paso Del Condor” by Jorge Milchberg, who was head of the group Urubamba (then known as Los Incas), who told Simon that the song was an 18th-century musical composition by an anonymous composer. Simon became interested in the song and composed new lyrics for the melody. The song appeared on Simon and Garfunkel’s 1970 album Bridge over Troubled Water and they used without permission the instrumental version of Los…